In the midst of all the woo-hooing over the cloture vote, an unnamed senatorial chief of staff sentthis little ditty to Josh Marshall.
I get it–I do.I understand what he/she’s trying to say.I’m delighted that we’ve gotten as far as we have on health care reform, and I know that it’s in large part due to a lot of deal-making to hold onto the 60.And for the most part, I’m cool with that.So thanks for all your efforts, Mr./Ms. Chief of Staff.Seriously.Anybody that had to suck up to Joe Lieberman to get his vote gets my sympathetic shudder and heartfelt thanks.
But you couldn’t leave well-enough alone, could you? Because your last sentence really got me:
“Blasting their elected Democratic officials, the vast majority of whom will vote for the Senate bill (and would also support a more robust public option if we didn’t need 60 votes to achieve cloture), may make folks feel good, but is both short-sighted and stupid.”
Stupid…Sigh. At the risk of repeating every lefty blogger that ever put pixel to screen, fuck you. Stupid. Really?Stupid?
Your Stupid: Let Me Show You It
I know that making bills into laws is like sausage-making–you don’t want to see it done. Well, dear CoS, let me extend that metaphor to the breaking point, just so your tiny little reptilian brain can make sense of it. When we blast our elected Democratic officials, it isn’t to make us feel good, it’s to make sure that as little melamine makes its way into the sausage as possible. The whole point of us blasting our elected Democratic officials, buddy, is so they know exactly where we stand, that where we stand is as public as possible, and that therefore, we can push back against the myriad forces trying to stick lye and dust and rat shit in our sausage. Do you honestly think that if we shut up, you’d magically be able to get a “robust public option?” If you think so, you’re far more stupid than you seem to think we are. A huge part of why you’ve been able to get this far with the public option is our vocal support of it.
So what exactly is it costing you to have us yelling at you? Have you lost an election yet? Have you lost donations? Dude, we haven’t evenstarted to mess with you yet. All we’re doing at this point is telling you what we want you to do. If you screw this up, then yes, we’ll take it out on you bigtime. But if you do the right thing–even in a losing cause–we’ll reward you. So your little whinefest up there is premature at best. And pissing off people who can do you a whole lot of good down the road? Man, that little “stupid” comment was projection on a scale I haven’t seen since our local drive-in closed.
As far as I can tell, the only possible reason for wanting us to STFU right now is that you want to stick dead kittens in our sausage. So, no, I’m not going to STFU. I’m not going to make it easier for you to cave on the public option. I’m not going to make it easier for you to let all of us get fucked by the Blanche Lincolns of the world. I’m not going to let you off the hook.
Because the fact is, the majority of Americans want a public option, in damn near every poll out there. EvenAmericans from Arkansas, which makes caving to Blanche Effing Lincoln even more stupid. So if you want to stick dead kittens into this bill in place of good, wholesome meat, you’ll have to do it with us screaming at you to stop.
Man up, you pathetic worm. Having people yell at you is part of your goddamned job.
But but BUGGY!
Talking about, and reacting to, real events and facts is so unseemly and boorish.
So what exactly is it costing you to have us yelling at you?
For serious. I wish someone could explain to me why it’s so hard to listen to people call you an asshole. I get that like 20 times a day.
Sticks and stones.
A.
I’ll grant them that it is a political process / politics makes strange bedfellows / and that people don’t seem to recognize the difficulties of politics.
But “stupid”?
Not to mention, we elected them making us somewhat like their boss. Try telling your boss, who doesn’t understand the details involved in the assignment s/he gives you, that they are “stupid.” Should make for an interesting year end review.
Lest we forget: there will be no health insurance reform this year, or any year, if they continue to try to force us to accept an end to insurance funded abortions. That is a deal killer. That is when we need to clean out the deadwood from Congress, from both parties, but especially from the Democratic Party.
There must always be a line in the sand, and this is it. We must enforce that line with our money, our time, our public statements, and our votes. Or, much better, by taking to the streets with intent to wipe out any profits any businesses can make.
It’s especially annoying since Harry Fucking Reid refused to play any kind of hardball when the Dems were in the minority in the Senate, and when he stood up at all, the GOPedophiles threatened to take away the filibuster. He should do the same thing to them, and cram it down their throats, except for the fact he is really a Repubican at heart and looking out for their best interests and not ours.
I’ve told them often enough they ghet nothing from me until health care is a done deal. Let’s get it done already.
Nothing would ever happen without constant yelling from the left.
What I really don’t get, though, is that everyone knows that change is inevitable … why try to slow it down? Could it be due to all the coin of the realm being stuffed in their pockets?
BuggsyQ is right … the rules need to change. But true campaign finance reform would also go a long way to getting a progressive agenda passed.
Virgotex, Unseemly and Boorish is my middle name. Why do you think I go by BuggyQ?
And Brooklyn Girl, the fact that campaign finance reform would help get a progressive agenda passed is exactly why we won’t see it for a long time, if ever. Sigh…
Yes. That is all I have to say.
aimai
the media has been trying to kill the public option from the first mention. they have their orders from ‘the man’. LBJ didn’t have gnews. we have to get the 1st inch to get the end yard.
sheeple don’t matter. money for elections is the ONLY thing that matters.
While I can get exasperated at the posts that say “All is lost, and has been since 1947″ and especially those that echo ‘there’s not a dime’s bit of difference between the Republicans and Democrats”, it all does serve a purpose.
It’s calledpressure, and we do well to exert it.
Exactly, pbq. Pressure is how you get diamonds from dinosaur dung, metaphorically speaking.
what obama wants.